1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a golfing cage which may be used for practice sessions, for pre-game warm-ups and/or for exercise. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a trifunctional golfing cage which has been uniquely developed to permit the user to drive, to chip and/or to putt. Further, the golfing cage of the present invention may be used indoors or outdoors and may be used privately or in commercial environments. It is particularly useful as a supplemental activity at the country club and public golf course.
2. Prior Art Statement
U.S. Pat. No. 3,411,788 to Blanding, U.S. Pat. No. 1,935,291 to Gardner et al., U.S. Pat. No. 1,889,813 to Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 1,669,640 to Warlick, U.S. Pat. No. 1,660,339 to Kaufmann and U.S. Pat. No. 1,543,401 to Steinmetz are all directed to various golf practice equipment which includes caging which utilizes netting to cover the top sides and back of an enclosed hitting range whereby golf balls may be driven from a tee off area and contained within the cage. Various embodiments include gravity return of the ball. Notwithstanding this significant collection of prior art, none of these references teach a self-contained trifunctional golfing cage which utilizes a plurality of tailor designed netting to optimize utilization of the cage for putting, chipping and driving. In fact, none of these prior art references show a second netting which is loose dropped for driving a third netting which is much shorter and is loose dropped for chipping.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,156,471 to Bibeau, U.S. Pat. No. 2,123,195 to Middleton, U.S. Pat. No. 1,969,139 to Knapp, U.S. Pat. No. 1,745,201 to Alston, U.S. Pat. No. 1,469,130 to Whitehair and U.S. Pat. No. 1,012,820 to Cory all teach other types of golf practicing apparatus with partial netting and/or return troughs, but these references add nothing to the shortcomings of the abovementioned references and likewise fail to teach the criticality of the plurality of custom tailored nettings employed in the advantageous trifunctional golfing cage of the present invention.